The company declared bankruptcy last month in the state of Delaware to restructure its debt, assuring bondholders that it would not stop its work in Piketon despite its Chapter 11 filing.

USEC, which operates the American Centrifuge Project, repeatedly, if narrowly, has escaped extinction. Supporters say the need for U.S.-produced enriched uranium outweighs concerns about weak demand for it or even concerns about USEC’s long-term viability.

“We have to have it for our national security,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who said if the government doesn’t continue to move forward, it will have wasted billions of dollars on technology that it ultimately abandoned.

But opponents say it would be more of a boondoggle to continue spending on the struggling company.

“USEC has been on the ropes for years,” said Michael Mariotte, president of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a nuclear nonproliferation organization based in Takoma Park, Md. “It exists now only because of tax dollars into it. At some point, Congress will decide it’s foolish to keep throwing good money after bad.”

United States Enrichment Corp. was established in 1992 as a wholly owned federal entity but was privatized in 1998. It originally operated a uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky. But the technology used in Paducah was outdated — it stopped enriching uranium in 2013 — and USEC sought to enrich uranium in Piketon using new technology.

For years, the company sought a $2 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

But in 2011, Solyndra, a solar-energy company that had received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government, went bankrupt, chilling the Obama administration’s appetite toward loan guarantees. Ultimately, the DOE that year offered the two-year, $350 million research and development project, now at its end.

“The federal government can’t seem to get its act together to provide any certainty or predictability,” Portman said. “What we’re looking for is a plan.”

But the Department of Energy is focused on “reducing the technical and financial risk” of the Piketon project, said Niketa Kumar, an agency spokeswoman. She added that the department is exploring “a number of options” for how to proceed after April 15.

In the meantime, the demand for enriched uranium has sunk.

A few factors played into that. Fewer nuclear reactors are being used in the world, meaning reduced demand for enriched uranium. The natural-gas boom also has meant less demand for nuclear energy.

But George David Banks, deputy director of the Nuclear Energy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that just as the U.S. has proclaimed that it doesn’t want to rely on the Middle East for oil and gas, the U.S. shouldn’t rely on other countries for nuclear fuel.

URENCO, which operates a uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico, is primarily owned by a coalition of European companies. And Areva, which sought but has indefinitely delayed plans to open a uranium-enrichment plant in Idaho, is primarily owned by the French.

The U.S., Banks said, needs to be able to supply enriched uranium, particularly with Russia the dominant player in the market.

He said that, as the EPA continues to crack down on coal emissions, demand for nuclear energy invariably will increase.

“Assuming an advance of climate change, you’re going to have a build-out of nuclear in the United States,” he said. “When that happens, do we want to be substantially dependent on foreign imports?”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the company is more than a necessity for national security. “It’s an economic engine for the region,” he said.

The uncertainty has taken its toll, said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Cincinnati.

“Congress did their part to support the project in Piketon, and it’s time for the Department of Energy to do their job and come forward with a long-term plan,” he said.

USEC spokesman Paul Jacobson said the company believes there’s $9.6 million available in appropriations that could help it get past April 15. Beyond that, the federal government can transfer $56 million from other accounts, but that could take a month.

USEC, Jacobson said, has spent $2.5 billion.

But he said the company needs the federal government’s help to move forward.

“This is not about a normal business making widgets,” he said. “This is about a product inexorably woven into U.S. national security policy.”